Yesterday I took and passed the Cisco AUTOCOR (previously DEVCOR) exam which is the core exam for CCNP Automation. That means I need a specialist exam to become CCNP Automation certified. It also means I’m qualified to sit the CCIE Automation lab.
What did I think of the exam?
As with any exam, there is good and bad. I’ll start with the good.
The exam aligned well with the blueprint. I didn’t feel there were any real surprises or questions on items that weren’t part of the blueprint.
There wasn’t a lot of trivia. No memorization of specific API endpoints or anything like that.
The exam experience was fine. I took it in a testing facility, which I prefer, and I had no issues. I was provided with earplugs which was nice to stay focused although this is a small facility and there was only one other candidate.
I liked the different types of questions. You have your standard multiple choice, single answer and multiple choice, multiple answer, but also fill in the blanks, and lablets. It’s nice that there is quite a bit of code in the exam, it is an automation exam after all. I also think it’s good that it includes hands-on.
The exam feels up to date and relevant. Considering it has only been out for a couple of months, that might be expected, but there have been exams in the past that felt behind even after getting updates. This exam feels relevant and aligned with automation topics that people are currently working on.
As always, there is also some bad.
Some of the questions suck. Sorry, there’s no way of sugarcoating that. Some of the questions I had no idea what was being asked of me, nor did the answers make much more sense. I don’t know if these questions are graded or not, and thankfully there weren’t a lot of them, but they should never have made it to the exam. They should have been caught in QA. There’s a difference between asking a difficult question and asking a question that is not comprehensible. I hope these will disappear in future revisions of the exam.
The lablet was laggy. This is probably depending on your exam location (I’m in Sweden), so it might not be relevant to you. It was still possible to perform the tasks, but a bit challenging when the mouse pointer was hopping all over the place.
Overall, one of the better Cisco exams I’ve taken. Just need to clean up those questions that were complete gibberish.
So how did I prepare for the exam?
My main source of studies was Andreas Baekdahl’s AUTOCOR course. It provides instructions (via video) and then you perform labs to work on the topics that Andreas instructed on. It’s a comprehensive offering covering all the domains and he also offers mock APIs, and an always-on sandbox. These were really helpful in preparations even though I also have my own lab. Andreas’ content aligns well with the blueprint and the exam.
I also took the Cisco U course which was also very good. One benefit of this course is that it includes labs. You can take them as many times as you want (while your subscription is active). Note that there is also a practice exam which can help you prepare and get a feel for the exam.
If you are looking for complete offerings, these will help you prepare. You can of course study the blueprint on your own, but then you need to spend more time finding resources and building your own labs.
How long did I study for the exam? It took me around 7 months of extensive studies to get prepared and I was able to pass it in my 1st attempt.
My recommendation for all of you preparing for this exam is to do a lot of hands-on. You really need to work with the different products and technologies to get comfortable using them. It’s really difficult to remember all of the syntax if you only study them through theory.
Good luck with your studies!